As far as I can tell, however, no society has ever been able to sustain itself without some clear concept of community- even our own. Through history, a common theme in societies is the tension between individual rights and the needs of the community, but never has the community been completely abandoned in favor of the individual. Without some fundamental basis in our relationships between one another, it would be impossible to thrive as a society. It would seem to some, however, that as we head into the uncharted waters of postmodernity, we are indeed losing these ties to one another.
The postmodern human is characterized as alienated, fragmented, disenfranchised with the structures of society. The individual is seen to stand alone, focusing inward, lacking a sense of the communal. One such view:
"With each invention, each step on the path of progress, another belief was trodden underfoot. Nothing was safe or sacred anymore-- advances in science, technology, and economy began to undermine traditional world views. Technology engendered higher economic living standards, which in turn with the general dissolution of the commonly held belief, encouraged a new kind of individualism. The interests of the self and those nearest became more important than the group as a whole. The increase of urban life, through the economic opportunities it presented, encouraged further individualism and isolation. " (Part One pg. 1)I do believe that there is still an idea of community in our society. It may be harder to find. It may not look the way we expect it to. It does not fit into many definitions of what a "real" community is. It is not based on the same standards of what is traditionally defined as community. It is, though, a sense of community that is no less real than the community of the past, serving the same functions of nurturing the individual and having the same goals of commonality. It is inevitable that our sense of community change along with everything else in postmodern society. It is less clear to me, though, whether this new concept of community is a positive advance for us, or whether its ties are strong enough to sustain us in any clear and cohesive way as we move into the future.
The type of community that is emerging today is the community of interest. We tend to forge social formations which define themselves, not by place, origin, or communal history but by the specific interests of individuals. __ Loomis as quoted in an article by _____, states:
"This wiil and the inner relationships of the associating individuals with one another may vary from one situation to another. For instance, a group or relationship can be willed because those involved wish to attain through it a definite end and are willing to join hands for this purpose...On the other hand, people may associate themselves together, as friends do, because they think the relation valuable as an end in itself." (Part One, pg. 2)This new form of connectivity has all the characteristics of postmodernity inherent within it. Interests may change, personal growth and even reevaluation of identity may occur, and thus relationships to specific communities can change or be lost altogether. People are more free to migrate, as disconnections and reconnections are more easily established by the individual. These communities tend to be small, encompassing not entire towns or cities, but rather fragmented portions of the larger whole.
An example, perhaps not of a specific community, but rather as an indication of the mentality involved in today's communities is our relationship to television. Robert Putnam, in his essay "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America," believes that television is the prime cause of the decline of community involvement. He indicates statistics which show a correlation between the rise of television viewing and lowered levels of involvement in civic activities. I think that the issue is a little more complicated than that, especially in an age when commercials routinely tout television and all of it's accessories- cable, satellite dishes, etc.- as a tool for bringing the family and community together. It is through the media that we, especially those of us of the twenty- something generation who have no experience of life before the Media Age, share common bonds of reference. We find connections with each other in our collective experience with the media and an indirect experience with popular culture.
Virtual communities, those which are forming on the so- called "information superhighway," are perhaps the best examples of communities of interest, and perhaps can be seen as a natural extension of the types of communal bonds that were already forming themselves during this great societal shift to postmodernity. People from all corners of the world and theoretically from all facets of global society can come together and communicate with each other simply with the aid of a computer and modem. Many believe that the communities forming through these mediums can be stronger than those formed in the real world given the social conditions in existence today because they are able to transcend the boundaries set by time and space.
Many dismiss this form of relationship, insisting that this is not community in it's true sense, but rather a "relationship of convenience," or "lifestyle enclave," and they may indeed be right. Those of us, though, who have grown up in this era and have known no other way of relating have come to depend on this fragile conceptualization of community in our pursuit of the independence which we have taken to be our inherent right. Thus we reach the point of paradox for the author. This very free and liberating definition of community, based on human will rather than circumstance, may indeed not be the best or the only way for community to exist in postmodernity. The lack of deep connections, to each other and to the places we find ourselves, may reap broad repurcussions for us in the future. It is too easy for the individual to become isolated, to be without the nurturing that more solid, traditional communities provided. Additionally, there is the question of whether removing the sense of real place is further decimating our relationship to the Earth, destroying any possibility at repairing the damage we've done. As Tim Luke, in his essay, "Community and Ecology" theorizes, "In substituting non- renewable energy intensive technologies for organic, labor intensive ones, it has severed close ties of communities to their particular ecological settings. (ed. Walker, pg. 208) I think this can be applied more broadly- that the ability to exist, work, play, and communicate in relationships independent of space has severed those ties of community to ecological place.
Some believe, as I do, that the community may be the best place to reinfuse ecological thought.
"The ecology movement, one kind of postmodern politics, is divided on de- territorialization or regionalism. some argue that the community is the best site of economic, political, and cultural life, and that communitarian social relations would then be horizontal as opposed to the vertical (hierarchical) configuration of power that is inherent in static versions of social rule. Regionalism, another position, argues for local governance defined geographically by way of a reading of the ecological environment. Both programs retain the primacy of the political insofar as they seek forms of power based on a conception of scarcity, a scarcity no longer of economic resources but of the ecosystem itself. (Aronowitz pg. 256)The phenomenon of indirect experience, the loosening of community ties, and the capitalist removal from our lives the process of production and consumption had led us to a very disconnected life, and a disjointed way of forming communities. If we believe that history is linear and irreversable, then we can see no possibility for changing or renegotiating this. I don't agree with or accept this. While I don't believe in romantic notions of returning to some idealized version of traditional community, which has little chance of surviving today in any case, I do feel that change is possible within the systems already in place: a reconnection with bioregional surroundings and place- based community that could occur while still remaining tied to the larger networks of information and expertise.